Republican John Fleming, elected in 2008, is a physician, a multi-millionaire owner of Subway restaurants, and a far-right conservative who has taken up rhetorical arms against the Obama administration on issues affecting businesses. Read More

Republican John Fleming, elected in 2008, is a physician, a multi-millionaire owner of Subway restaurants, and a far-right conservative who has taken up rhetorical arms against the Obama administration on issues affecting businesses.

Fleming grew up in Meridian, Miss., the son of a utility substation operator who worked two or three jobs to make ends meet. His father died of a heart attack just before Fleming finished high school. His mother was disabled and relied on Social Security to support Fleming and two younger siblings. After undergraduate and medical school at the University of Mississippi, he spent six years in the Navy, where he did his medical residency. He later opened a family medical practice in Minden, La., and in the 1990s, served as coroner of Webster Parish. He had another sideline: Fleming operated 30 Subway restaurants in the state and had a stake in 130 UPS stores, from Mississippi to Texas. He also wrote a book called Preventing Addiction: What Parents Must Know to Immunize Their Kids Against Drug and Alcohol Addiction.

The House seat came open when influential Rep. Jim McCrery, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, announced his retirement in December 2007. The early front-runners for the GOP nomination were trucking-company executive Chris Gorman and Bossier Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Thompson, who was supported by McCrery and the National Republican Congressional Committee. In the first round of voting, Fleming led with 35%, to 34% for Gorman and 31% for Thompson. Next came a runoff campaign with Gorman. Both men held similar, conservative views, emphasizing the need to reduce federal spending and taxes, and both spent heavily. Fleming spent over $1 million, much of it his own money, while Gorman spent $2.2 million. Fleming captured the nomination 56%-44%.

Meanwhile, Democrats lined up behind Paul Carmouche, a 30-year Caddo Parish district attorney who styled himself as a centrist Blue Dog Democrat and ran an anti-abortion rights and anti-crime campaign. Fleming emphasized his own conservative credentials, calling himself a Ronald Reagan Republican. He called for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and replacing the current income tax with a national sales tax. And he said he favored tough measures against illegal immigrants, decrying an “invasion by illegal aliens.” Fleming out-raised Carmouche $1.4 million to $1.2 million and got a big helping hand from the NRCC. The election was held on December 6, 2008, after being delayed a month by the threat from Hurricane Gustav. Fleming won by 350 votes.

In the House, Fleming’s fondness for fiery rhetoric has drawn admiration from the far right, but even some members of his party have come to regard him as a loose cannon. He drew widespread publicity in February 2012 when his office posted on his Facebook page—and later quickly deleted—an article from the satirical newspaper The Onion about Planned Parenthood’s development of an $8 billion “abortionplex” that his staff mistook as factual. One of the first Republicans to join the Tea Party Caucus, Fleming regularly takes to the House floor to make speeches bashing President Barack Obama. In one newspaper column, he accused the president of “undermining this country’s national defense on purpose.” Fleming also drew scorn from progressives when he publicly supported a Florida urologist’s decision to deny care to patients who supported Obama, saying it was the doctor’s “First Amendment right.”

During a vote in 2011 on a spending resolution aimed at averting a government shutdown, Fleming was one of 48 Republicans who defied the GOP leadership by voting no, saying the measure did not cut spending enough. Fleming came under fire for comments he made on MSNBC after being asked about a Wall Street Journal report that he had a gross income of some $6.3 million. “The amount that I have to invest in my business and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million,” he said. “So by the time I feed my family I have, maybe, $400,000 left over to invest.” Fleming was criticized by blogosphere and cable TV liberals for being insensitive to the plight of workers with much less disposable income. But Fleming was unapologetic, explaining later on Fox News that higher taxes mean business owners have less money to hire new workers.

Democrats failed to field a strong candidate to take on Fleming in 2010. The party’s nominee was David Melville, a Methodist minister who sought to portray the congressman as too partisan. Fleming did raise some eyebrows with an August appearance at a forum in which he cast the election as a choice between godlessness and Christianity. Fleming won comfortably with 62% of the vote. In 2011, Fleming lashed out at fellow Louisiana GOP Rep. Charles Boustany for backing a redistricting plan that Fleming said could have undermined his prospects in 2012, but his district’s partisan makeup remained mostly unchanged, and he beat a Libertarian candidate with 75% of the vote.

John Fleming Votes and Bills

National Journal’s rating system is an objective method of analyzing voting.
The liberal score means that the lawmaker’s votes were more liberal than that percentage of his colleagues’ votes.
The conservative score means his votes were more conservative than that percentage of his colleagues’ votes.
The composite score is an average of a lawmaker’s six issue-based scores.
See all NJ Voting

More Liberal

More Conservative

2013

2012

2011

Economic

13
(L) :
85 (C)

3
(L) :
96 (C)

18
(L) :
79 (C)

Social

13
(L) :
84 (C)

-
(L) :
91 (C)

17
(L) :
74 (C)

Foreign

5
(L) :
86 (C)

-
(L) :
91 (C)

16
(L) :
75 (C)

Composite

12.7
(L) : 87.3 (C)

4.2
(L) : 95.8 (C)

20.5
(L) : 79.5 (C)

Interest Group Ratings

The vote ratings by 10 special interest groups provide insight into a lawmaker’s general ideology and the degree to which he or she agrees with the group’s point of view.
Two organizations provide just one combined rating for 2011 and 2012, the two sessions of the 112th Congress. They are the ACLU and the ITIC.
About the interest groups.

The key votes show how a member of Congress voted on the major bills of the year.
N indicates a "no" vote; Y a "yes" vote. If a member voted "present" or was absent, the bill caption is not shown.
For a complete description of the bills included in key votes, see the Almanac's Guide to Usage.

About Almanac

The Almanac is a members-only database of searchable profiles compiled and adapted from the Almanac of American Politics.
Comprehensive online profiles include biographical and political summaries of elected officials, campaign expenditures, voting records,
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